Finance Minister says opposition was invited on March 5th to budget meeting

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh yesterday stated that Opposition Leader David Granger appears misinformed by his representatives to the budget discussions as the opposition had been issued with invitations on March 5 for a meeting on March 7.

Singh was responding to a story in yesterday’s edition of Stabroek News where Granger was reported as saying that prospects for cooperation on the passage of a budget were grim as the government had not lived up to its commitment to have consultations with the opposition.

Singh told GINA that on Monday, March 5, he wrote to the representatives of the various parliamentary parties inviting them to discussions on economic matters including the budget on Wednesday, March 7. He said he received a response from the AFC’s Gerhard Ramsaroop asking for a minor shift in the proposed time, and shortly thereafter he received a response from APNU’s Winston Jordan asking for a shift in the date to the following week because of Carl Greenidge’s unavailability.

The Minister further said that in response to Jordan’s request sent on Greenidge’s behalf, he promptly proposed an alternative date in the following week, to which the AFC representatives and Jordan from APNU have since confirmed their availability. As it currently stands,  Greenidge is still to confirm his availability.

“The fact of the matter is that a postponement to the meeting was requested on Greenidge’s behalf, and Greenidge is still to respond to the Minister’s proposal of a revised date.

“It is therefore completely misleading to suggest that no efforts have been made by the Government to convene a meeting, and extremely alarming that one week after the invitation had been issued that Mr. Granger is still unaware of the invitation and labouring under the misconception that efforts have not been made to convene the discussions.

Singh emphasised in the GINA release that the Government is looking forward to the consultative discussions with the Opposition representatives and to receiving their views. He further indicated that the Government may have no choice but to proceed with the other Opposition representatives if Greenidge continues to be unavailable.